Give Into Love Or Live In Fear
by LuckyxLabradoodlexLoverx7
Summary: AU: Zoey is the new girl at McKinley and has only one friend. At auditions for the school's production of RENT, she discovers a whole new group of friends – the Glee club. Mentions of Rory x OC. ONE-SHOT. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


Disclaimer – I own nothing of Glee. It belongs to its respected owners. I do own Zoey and Serephina and the plot. 'Nuff said.

A/N: This story is based on a dream I had last night.

Summary: AU: Zoey is the new girl at McKinley and has only one friend. At auditions for the school's production of RENT, she discovers a whole new group of friends – the Glee club. Mentions of Rory x OC. ONE-SHOT. Rated T because I'm paranoid.

Genre: Friendship/None

Rating: T

* * *

Zoey Taylor nervously looked around as she walked down the halls of McKinley High School. She had moved to Ohio from California a year ago and she still had trouble locating all her classes. This year, she and her only friend, Serephina Jones – or Sara for short – were sophomores.

The only reason that Zoey and Sara became friends was that they were assigned science partners last year and had been friends ever since. It bothered Zoey a little bit that Sara had more friends than she did, but it was because Sara was one of the most popular girls in school. She was a cheerleader, played violin in the school's orchestra, captain of the chess team and was also on the gymnastics team. Outside of school, Sara rode horses and read to kids at the library.

Zoey didn't understand why Sara wanted to be her friend. She was so pretty and popular. Zoey wasn't pretty or popular.

* * *

Rory Flanagan sighed and looked at the girl in his math class. He noticed that she was always alone, except when she was with a tall girl with strawberry-blond hair.

"Class, divide into pairs and solve the problem on the board." Mrs. Adams, the algebra teacher, told the class of sixteen. Everyone paired together, except for Rory and the girl.

"Would you like to be my partner?" Rory asked the girl. She nodded and sat at the empty desk next to his. "I'm Rory."

"Zoey." The girl – Zoey – said, keeping her head down. Rory looked over and saw that she was trying to solve the problem on the board.

"Ms. Taylor, come up and solve the problem, please." Mrs. Adams told Zoey. Rory smiled at her and watched her solve the problem instantly. The class applauded as Zoey zoomed back to her seat.

After school, Rory sought Zoey out and hung out at her locker as she put her books away. He knew how she felt – he didn't have many friends, either, except for the glee clubbers who treated him like a brother.

"Zoey, I can't hang out after school today. I have my riding lesson." The girl with strawberry-blond hair was telling Zoey.

"Okay. Whatever." Zoey said in an uncaring tone. She then stormed away from her locker and headed down the hallway. Rory quickly caught up to her.

"Zoey!" he called. She turned around and smiled.

"Hey Rory." Zoey greeted her fellow sophomore.

"I was wondering, if you weren't busy – would you like to come to glee rehearsal?" Rory asked. He saw a lovely smile spread across Zoey's face.

"I would love that!" Zoey said. Rory smiled and led Zoey to the glee room.

"Mr. Schue, is it all right that I brought a friend?" Rory inquired, talking to a curly-haired man standing next to the piano. The man looked up and smiled at Zoey. "This is my friend, Zoey. Zoey, this is Mr. Schuester, but everyone calls him Mr. Schue."

"It's nice to meet you, Zoey." Mr. Schue told Zoey, smiling kindly at her.

"It's nice to meet you, too." Zoey told the teacher, shaking his hand. Rory smiled and had Zoey sit next to him, but Mr. Schue motioned for Zoey to stand next to him. Zoey put down her shoulder bag at her seat and stood next to Mr. Schue.

"Everyone, this is Rory's friend, Zoey. She's just visiting, but I want everyone to treat her with respect. Let's all go around and introduce yourselves." Mr. Schue told the students.

"Brittany."

"Artie."

"Sugar."

"Rachel."

"Puck."

"Artie."

"Santana."

"Finn."

"Quinn."

"Mercedes."

"Kurt. I love your top!"

"Blaine."

"Tina."

"Mike."

"Sam."

"Joe."

"It's nice to meet all of you, too." Zoey told everyone as she went to sit next to Rory. He smiled at her, knowing that she would make many new friends in glee club.

After glee club, Rory called his mother to have her pick up both Zoey and Rory. Mrs. Flanagan was more than happy to do that.

"Mum will be here shortly." Rory told his new friend.

"Okay." Zoey said, looking off in the distance. Rory could tell that something was bothering her.

"Everything all right?" Rory asked. Zoey nodded then shook her head.

"I moved here a year ago from California and I haven't made any new friends, except for Serephina – or Sara. She's my best friend and one of the most popular girls in school. She's the only friend I have."

"That's not true. You have me." Rory told her.

A few minuets later, Mrs. Flanagan came to pick up Rory and Zoey.

"Where to, Zoey?" she asked.

"Do you know where Griffith Road is?" Zoey asked, climbing in the back with Rory.

"Aye."

"It's the second house on the left just as you turn onto Griffith Road." Zoey instructed. Mrs. Flanagan smiled and exited the school parking lot.

"Zoey, I actually know how you feel." Rory started. "Three years ago, my parents and I moved here from Ireland. My dad got a better job here, which meant I had to leave all my friends behind. A week later, a friend of mine told me about glee club and I joined, not really knowing what I was in for. They treat me like a younger brother. I think you would really like it and it would give you a chance to meet some more friends." Rory told Zoey. He saw that beautiful smile spread across her face, which made him extremely happy.

_Two weeks later_

Rory looked over at Zoey during math and passed her an envelope without Mrs. Adams noticing. Zoey slunk down in her chair and opened the envelope. She grinned and mouthed 'thank you' to Rory, who smiled and motioned her to open it.

Loud music filled the otherwise silent classroom. Mrs. Adams turned away from the board and glared at Zoey. She instantly closed the card and sat up straight in her chair.

"Ms. Taylor, put that away or I will take it away." Mrs. Adams threatened. Zoey put the card in her shoulder bag and smiled at Rory. He was so sweet for thinking of her on her birthday.

"Zoey! Wait up!" Sara's familiar voice called to Zoey as she and Rory stepped out of the math classroom. Zoey smiled and hugged her best friend.

"Thanks Sara! That's really sweet of you!" Zoey thanked her best friend as she handed Zoey a bouquet of balloons, many of them said 'Happy Birthday' or 'Birthday Girl'.

At lunch, Zoey had lunch with the glee clubbers. Blaine and Kurt gave Zoey birthday hugs and all the glee clubbers sang 'Happy Birthday' to Zoey, which made her blush. She laughed and thanked the glee clubbers for thinking about her.

After school, Zoey went to the room where glee club was to find that it was dark. She opened the door and turned on the light. Everyone popped out from various hiding spots, laughing and smiling.

"HAPPY SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY ZOEY!" They all exclaimed. Zoey felt tears in her eyes and collapsed into a chair, bawling her eyes out. Rory walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You all right?" Rory asked. Zoey nodded and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"You guys have no idea how much this means to me." Zoey told the glee clubbers as Mr. Schue brought out a large cake and cut it into pieces. There was enough for everyone to have one piece. It was Zoey's favorite cake – chocolate with vanilla frosting.

That was the best day of Zoey's life.

_Four months later_

Zoey was in her English class, glancing at the clock every five minutes. Mr. Young, the teacher, was going on and on and on and on and on about Shakespeare and the essays the class was going to write on any one of Shakespeare's plays. Zoey already knew which play she wanted to write about – Romeo and Juliet.

Finally, the bell rang and the entire class rushed out of the room. English was Zoey's last class of the day. From the English wing, it took two minutes to walk to the room where glee club was held.

"Oh my God!" Rachel and Kurt exclaimed, pulling Zoey to the bulletin board in the middle of the student common room. Zoey squeaked when she saw that McKinley High was putting on RENT – her, Rachel, Rory and Kurt's favorite musical.

"I'm so auditioning for Angel." Kurt announced, grabbing Zoey's arm. She laughed and followed Kurt to the glee room.

"Everyone! McKinley is putting on RENT!" Kurt squealed loudly. Zoey laughed and found Rory. She sat next to him and felt him put an arm around her shoulders. He had asked her out a week ago and she had said 'yes'. The two of them were inseparable.

Two days later, the auditions for RENT had begun. Zoey was nervous when she auditioned for Maureen. The director smiled, thanked her and called for the next person to audition.

Three weeks later, the cast was announced.

CAST LIST FOR RENT:

ANGEL DUMOTT SCHUNARD – Kurt Hummel

BENJAMIN COFFIN THE THIRD – Blaine Anderson

COLLINS, TOM – Mike Chang

JOANNE JEFFERSON – Mercedes Jones

MAUREEN JOHNSON – Zoey Taylor

MARK COHEN – Rory Flanagan

MIMI MARQUEZ – Santana Lopez

ROGER DAVIS – Sam Evans

STEVE – Artie Abrams

GORDON – Finn Hudson

ALI – Rachel Berry

PAM – Brittany Pierce

SUE – Tina Cohen-Chang

PAUL – Noah Puckerman

WOMAN WITH BLANKET – Sugar Motta

HOMELESS PEOPLE AND OTHERS – Joe Hart & Quinn Fabray

Everyone was pretty much happy with their parts, except Rachel. She complained that she couldn't be a secondary character – she had to be a main character.

The following day was the first day of rehearsals. Zoey and Rory couldn't keep their eyes off each other. Unfortunately, Mercedes kept getting in the way. Zoey liked Mercedes as a friend, but not as a _girl_friend. It was just unnatural.

"Ew! There is NO WAY I'm kissing Mike!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Kurt, it's called acting. There's no way in hell that I would kiss Mercedes." Zoey assured her friend. She then turned to Mercedes. "No offense, Mercedes."

"It's okay, Zoey." Mercedes told her friend.

Rehearsal lasted for three hours, two of which Rachel complained about her part.

"Rachel, tell you what, if one of the female leads gets sick, you can fill in for them AND play Ali." The director told Rachel, rubbing his temples.

"Eep! Thanks Mr. Barnes!" Rachel thanked the drama teacher.

A month later, the musical opened at McKinley. Zoey poked her head out and frowned – her parents still hadn't shown up yet. The musical was due to start in fifteen minutes.

"Typical!" Zoey exclaimed as one of the makeup artists applied Zoey's makeup and adjusted Zoey's mic.

"What's typical?" Rory asked, adjusting the red and gray sweater he was wearing. He then pushed the glasses he was wearing to the bridge of his nose and secured them with Scotch tape.

"My parents are late – as usual." Zoey seethed.

"Maybe they have a good reason." Kurt chimed in, adjusting his wig for the 500th time.

"You look good, Kurt." Blaine told his boyfriend.

"Thanks. I just wish it was you I was kissing instead of Mike." Kurt said. Blaine smiled and gave Kurt a peck on the cheek for good luck.

"Has anyone seen Santana?" Mr. Barnes asked. Everyone shook their heads. He turned to Rachel. "You're playing Mimi tonight. Go ahead and get changed."

Five minutes later, it was show time. Zoey took a deep breath and poked her head out again. Her parents still hadn't shown up. In their place was Sara and her boyfriend. Zoey glared at her best friend and went to her mark on the stage.

The first act went extremely well and now it was intermission. Everyone squealed and hugged each other, making sure their mics were off.

"I'm going to call my parents and see why their late." Zoey announced, going to a quiet corner and dialed her mom's cell number.

"Hello?" her mom croaked.

"Mom? Where are you guys? The play's already started."

"Oh, I'm sorry honey. Your dad and I just got off work and are really tired. We sent Sara and her new boyfriend instead."

"Will you be here tomorrow night for the show?"

"Yes. Tomorrow's Saturday and we will most certainly be there." Her dad spoke up. Zoey smiled and felt warm inside. Her dad was her favorite person in the world. Zoey and her mom really didn't get along.

"Thanks dad. At least there's someone in this family I can trust. I'll see you both tomorrow for the show. It starts at noon, so don't be late."

"I'll make sure we get there in plenty of time."

"Thanks. I gotta go – the second act is about to start." Zoey told her parents. She then hung up the phone and walked over to Rory. She placed her head on his shoulder and let out a frustrated sigh. Rory put his arms around her, letting her know that everything was all right.

The following afternoon, Zoey's parents came to the musical. They loved every minute of it. Well, Mr. Taylor did. Mrs. Taylor kept complaining about the acting and why Zoey couldn't be with Rory.

"Mom, it's called acting. Rory and I are really together." Zoey explained after the show. Zoey, her parents, Rory and his parents were getting ice cream at the local ice cream parlor.

The show lasted for two more weeks before it was over. Zoey said her goodbyes to her classmates, promising to see them at glee club.

_Two years later_

It was graduation day. Rory and Zoey were attending the local community college so that they could continue to be together. Sara had been accepted at UCLA, Quinn was going to Yale, Artie was going to the University of Michigan, Rachel and Kurt were going to a performing arts college in New York. Both Blaine and Finn were going along and would be attending New York University. Joe was following Quinn to Yale, since the two of them were kind of a thing.

Rory and Zoey had finished their classes at the community college and were across the street at a little café doing homework.

"Zoey, are you happy with me?" Rory asked his long-time girlfriend. Zoey looked up from solving a math problem to stare into her boyfriend's beautiful blue eyes.

"Of course I'm happy with you. Why would you ask such a dumb question like that?" Zoey asked. It was then that Rory got down on one knee and presented Zoey with the most beautiful ring she had ever seen.

"Zoey Michelle Taylor – will you marry me?" Rory inquired. Zoey nodded, tears in her eyes. Rory smiled as he placed the ring on her left ring finger and smiled. The students around them awed and took pictures of Rory and Zoey.

After they finished their semester at the community college, Rory and Zoey went to work planning their wedding. The two of them were now living together in a dorm on campus.

That night, to celebrate, the two of them made love for the first time. After they were finished, Rory held Zoey in his arms as she slept. He kissed her neck and stroked her hair.

Four months later was the wedding. Rory had asked Finn to be his best man and Zoey asked Sara to be her maid of honor. The rest of the glee club would be serving as bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Two years after the wedding, Rory was in a delivery room, waiting to welcome his new baby into the world. He and Zoey didn't want to find out what they were having – they wanted it to be a surprise.

He squeezed Zoey's hand as she continued to push their new baby into the world. He kissed the top of her head and looked between her legs – he could see the head.

"Almost there. You're doing great!" Rory encouraged.

A short while later, the baby was out. The doctor smiled and turned the baby around so that the parents could see their newborn.

"Congratulations you two – you have a son." The doctor told the couple. Rory walked over and cut the cord before the nurse took their new son over to get him cleaned up, weighed and measured. She then brought him back to the couple and placed him in Zoey's arms.

"What should we name him, Rory?" Zoey croaked.

"I have the perfect name for him – Gavin Rory Flanagan." Rory told his wife. Zoey looked down at her sleeping bundle.

"I love that name." Zoey whispered, so that she wouldn't wake her sleeping baby boy.

Two years after Gavin was born, Zoey and Rory welcomed a little girl into the world. They named her Rose Alaina Flanagan.

Rory kissed the top of Zoey's head as she nursed Rose. Gavin was in his room, sleeping.

"May I hold her once she's finished?" Rory asked. Zoey nodded and rocked her daughter in the rocking chair as she finished nursing. Rory put on some hand sanitizer and held his arms outstretched. Zoey looked up at her husband as he held their daughter for the first time.

"Hello my little Irish Rose. I'm your daddy and over there is your mommy. Your older brother is sleeping, but he'll see you tomorrow. You are so beautiful and so sweet." Rory whispered as he walked Rose around the nursery. Zoey smiled and walked to the master bedroom, which was right next door to the nursery.

Rory then rocked Rose in the rocking chair, singing to her until she fell asleep. Rory then placed Rose in her cradle before joining Zoey in the master bedroom.

When he entered the room, he saw that Zoey was fast asleep. He didn't blame her – he would be asleep, too after giving birth 72 hours ago.

"You sleep, my sweet one. I'll take care of Rose tonight." Rory whispered in Zoey's ear. She mumbled something in her sleep before turning on her side facing Rory. He propped himself on an elbow and stroked Zoey's long hair out of her face.

Rose only woke up once during the night and that was to be fed. Zoey got out of bed to tend to her daughter while Rory snored like a buzz saw. His snoring made Zoey giggle.

Once Rose was taken care of, Zoey climbed back in bed, kissed her husband on the cheek and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The two of them couldn't be happier than they already were.

_There's only now, there's only here  
Give into love or live in fear  
No other path, no other way  
No day but today_


End file.
